by Dr Anushya Vijayananthan

The “Miracles of Sonography” Ultrasound Imaging Symposuim was held at the Armada Hotel, Petaling Jaya on the 26^th and 27^th of November. The Radiology Department of the University Malaya Medical Centre was the main organizer with support from the College of Radiology and the Malaysian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine. The speakers for this symposium were Dr Anil Ahuja from Hong Kong, Dr. Arun Kinare from Pune, Dr Ong Chiou Li from Singapore, Dr Nitin Chaubal from Mumbai and Dr. Ramamurthy from Bangalore. About 100 participants registered for the symposium, which covered a wide range of topics including musculoskeletal, head and neck, paediatric, gynaecology, vascular and hepatobiliary sonography.

The main sponsor for the event was Philips Medical Systems. Other companies that participated in the booth exhibitions were Abex Medical Systems, Inspire Vision Technologies and Diagnostica Marketing. The first day of the symposium kicked off with the opening address by the Organising Chairperson and President of the College of Radiology, Assoc Prof. Basri Johan Jeet Abdullah. This was followed by a series of lectures from the speakers and demonstration sessions on musculoskeletal ultrasound. The afternoon and evening sessions included lectures on gynaecology and paediatric ultrasound. The first day concluded at about 5.00 pm.

The speaker’s dinner was held at Oasis Restaurant in Bangsar and this was sponsored by Diagnostica Marketing. There was a wide variety of food ranging from local to western cuisine and the ambience was great as we were seated in a garden with water features surrounding us. Everyone had a great time!

The second day started bright and early at 8 am as some of the speakers were due to catch their flights that evening and we wanted to make sure that we kept to time. The demonstration sessions on the next day were interesting and informative. Dr Nitin demonstrated renal vascular and upper limb vascular and Dr. Ramamurthy showed us the correct techniques for carotid doppler and lower limb venous ultrasound. Dr. Anil however, stole the show with his ½ an hour demonstration cum question and answer session on the anatomy of the neck. (Actually, he asked the questions and answered them himself!). Many of us saw the “neck” in a whole different light after this session. The day then progressed with another series of lectures covering vascular, hepatobiliary and head and neck ultrasound. We finally wrapped up at about 5.30pm and surprisingly the crowd was still strong. All in all it was a very informative and interesting weekend.